To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — Click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • A Country Boy’s Dream Comes True by Edward Franklin Burkett (Micronesia 1986–87) iUniverse Press 108 pages 2004 $22.95 (hardcover), $12.78 (paperback) From a rural southern boy hauling hay in the hot sun to a University graduate to traveling around the world living adventures . . .

To Preserve and to Learn — occasional essays about the history of the Peace Corps Early ’60s Analysis of Youth Service IN EARLY 1960, Maurice (Maury) L. Albertson, director of the Colorado State University Research Foundation, received a Point-4 (precursor to USAID) contract to prepare a Congressional Feasibility Study of the Point-4 Youth Corps called for in the Reuss-Neuberger Bill, an amendment to the Mutual Security Act. The Youth Corps was “to be made up of young Americans willing to serve their country in public and private technical assistance missions in far-off countries, and at a soldier’s pay.” Then in late 1961, Public Affairs Press in Washington, D.C. published, New Frontiers for American Youth: Perspective on the Peace Corps written by Maury Albertson, and co-authored with Andrew E. Rice and Pauline E. Birky. The book was based on their Point-4 study. According to the authors, “The roots of the Peace Corps idea . . .

Journals of Peace — Karin Schumacher (Philippines) Feb 27 2016 0 Journals of Peace Karin Schumacher (Philippines 1968–70) Monday, November 21 3:30 pm • There was never a doubt in my mind. From the moment I heard him speak of the Peace Corps, as a high school freshman, I knew it was for me. Then, it was a simple dream of far-away places, colorful people and a chance to “help”. The assassination of President Kennedy plummeted me into a shocking realization of the real world – its irrationality and the terrible consequences of self-interested power. His death strengthened my resolve, and I entered Peace Corps training upon college graduation at age 21. I hadn’t yet formed any plans for after the Peace Corps. It was well that I hadn’t, for it was for the experience itself that I shaped my long-term goals. I spent two years in Cebu City, Philippines . . .

Betsy was not allowed to play croquet with her husband and the Reverend, so she sat in the shade of the trees at the top of the mound. The mound overlooked a lush African rain forest, which grew thick and dense to the edges of the mission compound. The view was compelling and frightening to Betsy. The close, steamy jungle made her feel insignificant, and as she half listened to Mrs. Shaw’s chatter, she watched the bush as if it were alive. The Reverend and Mrs. Shaw had started their mission twenty years before. Landscaping woods near a village of mud and cattle-dung huts, they cut into the underbrush, leaving only the ancient acacias and gum trees for shade, and planting lawns and gardens. The African laborers had instructions to keep the lawns neatly trimmed during the rainy season, well-watered the remainder of the year. The Shaws had been the . . .

Journals of Peace — Dennis L. Kaltreider Feb 25 2010 0 Journals of Peace Dennis L. Kaltreider (Colombia 1964–66) Monday, November 21 4:24 pm • DURING MY SECOND YEAR in Colombia, South America, I worked with the Peace Corps and Laubach Literacy Foundation’s campaign for adult literacy. Perhaps more than any other, one item stands out from the thousands of recollections stored in my bank of memories. That is a letter I received just prior to my returning home. I treasure the letter which reads in part, Estimado Senor Kaltreider, This is the first letter that I write in my life. I send it to you to thank you for your help in teaching me to read and to write. I am 65 years old and never think that I would be able to do what I am doing now. God bless you with . . .

The Relunctant Volunteer: My Unforgettable Journey with the Peace Corps in Brazil Peggy Constantine (Brazil 1970–71 ) BookBaby May 2016 156 pages $15.00 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Sally LaRue (Mongolia 2015–17) • The Reluctant Volunteer captures the Peace Corps experience in its uncanny ability to transcend time and place. When I started to read this, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to relate since my own Peace Corps experience was over 40 decades after Constantine’s and in a completely different culture, climate, and time in our world. I was astonished to find that I could imagine it all and could relate in more ways than could ever be explained to someone who doesn’t have that experience. She beautifully depicts a realistic Peace Corps experience complete with all those self-conscious feelings of inadequacies, successes and failures, social factors most people don’t ever consider, and the multifaceted challenges . . .

The Devil’s Throat by Joseph Theroux (Samoa 1975-78) Kilauea Publications 190 pages September 2017 $8.99 Paperback $3.99 Kindle Reviewed by Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69) • Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of reading Joseph Theroux’s The Devil’s Throat or Robert Louis Stevenson, Detective, a novel set in Hawaii in the late nineteenth century, starring, if you will, the great Scottish novelist himself, and narrated by his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The conceit of the novel is that its author found a partially completed manuscript, written by the above named Osbourne, hidden in the false bottom of an antique chest he bought at auction “several years ago” in Hilo. And maybe it’s true. My abilities to detect artifacts from fact have waned over the years, so I can’t be sure. But either way, it provides a great start to the mystery that the manuscript brings to light; namely that a locally . . .

This Thanksgiving we are remembering how President Kennedy first inspired Peace Corps Volunteers. RPCVs honored his memory at the 25th commeneration of the tragic assassination, by telling about how he inspired them. Every three minutes for 24 hours, a RPCV spoke at the Capital Rotunda. Read the story of that vigil, again, here.http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/the-journals-of-peace-capital-rotrunda-november-21-1988/ and here: http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/rpcvs-remember/ On the original site of Peace Corps Writers, Marian Haley Beil archived a partial list of RPCVs who spoke at the Capital Rotunda in the Peace Corps’ Commeneration of President Kennedy. Here is that list, click on the highlighted names to read some of the stories; http://peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/archives/journalsofpeace/jpalphalst.html If you spoke and your name is not listed, please add it in the comment section. Three of those stories by RPCVs Gary Russell, Karin Schumacher, and Dennis Kaltreider were posted on this site. We will repost each one. Here is the first: Journals of Peace Gary . . .

Thousands rekindle Kennedy’s words, fire by Mary Jordan Washington Post Staff Writer November 23, 1988; Page A1 THEY BEGAN ARRIVING in the predawn darkness, more than three hours before the cemetery gates opened, drawn to the flame of a man and a time now 25 years past. By yesterday evening, more than 20,000 had made the pilgrimage to Arlington National Cemetery to stand silently at John F. Kennedy’s grave and watch the orange flames of the eternal torch reach upward. “It’s memories,” said Col. Floyd James Thompson, a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nine years. “I can’t explain why I came. It’s memories. It’s emotions, so much emotion.” Like Thompson, who flew here from Key West, Fla., for ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, thousands of others took time yesterday to relive, if only for a few moments, the early 1960s when a young president . . .

Arizona Authors’ is one of the longest established non-profit writers’ organizations in the Southwest. Since 1978, it has served as an information and referral center for the literary and arts community. Internationally renowned, the Association sponsors an annual Literary Contest including both published and unpublished categories. The awards ceremony coincides with the yearly publication of the Arizona Literary Magazine. This year Mark Walker’s Different Latitudes, published by Peace Corps Writers), received an “Honorable Mention.” It was one of 72 entries in this annual award. Summer, 1971. A naive young man must decide his path upon graduation from a small university in Colorado. Amidst the turmoil of the counterculture years and the looming possibility of being sent to Vietnam, he concludes that he wants to travel, serve, and, if possible, save the world. As a Peace Corps volunteer Mark embarks on a vigorous cross-cultural experience in the Caribbean and two Central American countries, with . . .